Legendary Russian academic Yakov Sinai awarded ‘math Nobel’

Russian mathematician Yakov Sinai has received the Abel Prize – worth over $1 million – for his lifetime contribution to the discipline.

"Yakov Sinai is one of the most influential mathematicians of
the 20th century," the Norwegian Academy of Science and
Letters, which awarded the annual honor, said in a statement.

“He has achieved numerous groundbreaking results in the
theory of dynamical systems, in mathematical physics and in
probability theory."

The Abel Prize, named after prodigious Norwegian mathematician
Niels Henrik Abel, was instituted in 2003 by the Norwegian
government in an effort to reward a field that historically has
been neglected by the Nobel Prize Committee.

“All of my honors are very important to me,” Sinai, 78,
said when asked of his feelings about his latest award during a
reception at the University of Princeton, where he still
lectures.

“If I have many children, it is hard for me to answer the
question of which one I like more. I like all of my honors."

Born into an established Russian-Jewish academic family, Sinai
made his breakthrough while still in his twenties at Moscow State
University. His most influential work concerns applying
mathematical principles to analyze dynamic – and apparently
chaotic – physical phenomena, such as weather, microscopic
particles or the movement of planets.

Subsequently, he lent his name to multiple key theorems, such as
the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy, Sinai's billiards, Sinai's random
walk, the Sinai-Ruelle-Bowen measures and the Pirogov-Sinai
theory.

Despite growing international acclaim, Sinai’s official career
stalled after he supported Aleksandr Esenin-Volpin, a dissident
mathematician and human rights activist persecuted by the Soviet
authorities. He was often forbidden from attending international
congresses, as well as being passed over for promotion multiple
times.

Sinai emigrated to the United States shortly after the breakup of
the Soviet Union.

In recent years his stature has blossomed, and he has been
granted the Wolf, Dirac and Poincare prizes. His only missing
major honor is the Fields Medal, which is only bestowed on
mathematicians under 40, though Sinai did once chair the
committee that awards it.